Finished the Miu/Rika half of the March 2 presser! The transcript for this one is here, and the video for it is here.
I think the first chunk went alright:
Rika: “This will be my first singles match with Miu since we fought for the Princess of Princess title two years ago. I think we’ve grown so much that it’ll be beyond compare, especially Miu, who has the air of a champion about her now. She gets the crowd so excited, I feel like she’s grown into a wrestler whom even I am jealous of. So I am going to fight her with everything I have, without hesitation. I want to have a title match that is worthy of the International Princess name, and which gets the world riled up. I’ve already won the Princess of Princess belt and the Tag belt, and if I win the International Princess belt, I’ll achieve the Grand Slam, so I definitely want to win.”
Miu: “Ever since I won this belt, I’ve been thinking as I fight alongside it that I want to see new scenery and experience a lot of things. Moka (Miyamoto), my first challenger, was an opponent I’d yet to experience in the sense that she was challenging for a belt for the first time. And with my second and third challenges, I was facing foreign wrestlers for the first time, so I was able to experience something new there as well. Rika-san, who is always beside me and who is probably closer to me than anyone, came forward to challenge, and I thought she was the most known to me, but after our preview match (2.25 Ota City Industrial Plaza), I started to think that Rika-san might actually be the biggest unknown. Her fighting style is such that you can’t predict what she’s going to do, and you never know what will happen. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m also fighting alongside her day after day to get stronger together as Daydream. So in that sense, I can see the most unknown scenery that I have seen up to now, and I hope we can have the most not-yet-known match, and the most international match. I want to see more and more scenery through this belt, and I want to fight Rika-san, beat her, and then see what kind of scenery lies beyond that point. It’s different from when I challenged Rika-san two years ago, because I want to confront her with this version of myself that has gotten stronger. I will do my best to successfully defend my belt this time as well, so that I can achieve V4.”
Interviewer: “This is your first time challenging for this belt. What are your impressions of it?”
Rika: “I feel like this belt’s position is unclear. TJPW has another singles belt, and I feel like the white belt is a symbol of strength. Since this blue belt is the International belt, I think it’s a belt for reaching more of the world and attracting global attention. I’ve only just realized that I’m international, too. Since foreign wrestlers have been coming to TJPW, I wanted to catch the world’s attention a little more, so I’m happy that I could challenge.”
Interviewer: “Your positions have been reversed since the match two years ago.”
Rika: “Before, I was on the receiving end, the person defending the belt, so I know that defending it is very difficult. This time I’m on the challenger side and I have nothing to lose, so I can go all out. That might make it easier for me. But I am afraid because my opponent is who she is.”
Miu’s second sentence gave me a bit of a headache, haha. This chunk in particular was extremely difficult to parse, and I’m pretty sure I did not successfully figure it out, haha: “いっぱいいろいろ考えた上なんですけど何も考えずにいっても怖くないみたいな思いがあったので、勢いでどうにでもなれじゃないですけど、もちろんいろんな覚悟を持って闘いはしたんですけど、失いもののない怖さとかまだ若い世代と言われていた頃だったからこそいけた気持ちみたいなものはあったので”.
Miu: “Two years ago, when Rika-san won the belt, I decided to challenge for it. I thought about it a lot, but I feel like I would’ve been afraid even if I hadn’t thought about it at all. So I didn’t know how to do it with momentum, but of course I came prepared for the fight. I was able to do it because of having nothing to lose and all that, and I was still considered to be part of the young generation. In a sense, I had nothing to be scared of, but it also felt like there were so many scary things! But this time Rika-san is challenging me, and she’s my senpai, not to mention I’ve been able to become stronger as part of Daydream thanks to Rika-san being there. Having my senpai come forward after that is scary, and it’s scary to want to fight her and protect my belt, and I just feel a lot of anxiety right now.”
Interviewer: “Is there a sense of a generation struggle?”
I think I maybe got this next part (with about 60% certainty):
Miu: “I’ve heard all of the voices from people saying that they wanted to see me surpass that summer and surpass my senpais. That is something important, but because I’m facing my senpai Rika-san now, it’s really difficult to think about how far I can go, or what I can do, and whether I can surpass or not surpass her.”
Here’s where I got a bit lost: “日本語的な意味も含めて超えた先に何があるのだろうと思うと、それはすごい難しいなと思ってから、すごい考えるようになって.”
“I wondered if I could go beyond even the meaning of the word ‘surpass’ in Japanese, and after realizing how difficult it would be, I really started to think about it. I want to surpass my past matches, like that summer, and also that match in February two years ago.”
Interviewer: “Rika, Miu compared you to a ‘yokai.’”
Rika: “I’ve been thinking about what kind of yokai I’d be. It’s really unsatisfactory, but if I were a yokai, I think I’d be like a zashiki-warashi that brings good fortune. I called her a demon without thinking, but I don’t actually think that.”
Miu: “Huh? But you scared me!!!”
Rika: “What can I say? I had to come up with a metaphor, and I thought that she’d become a monster, an indescribable creature, so I reflexively called her a demon.”
Miu: (whispering) “No…”
Rika: “She’s really more of a Cerberus than a demon. Before, she was like a puppy, obedient and cute, but now she’s like an uncontrollable monster.”
Miu: “…What is a Cerberus?”
Rika: “It has three heads…”
I couldn’t quite figure out the beginning of Miu’s sentence here: “私は思ってないとか、私が妖怪と言ったことが重大なヤバいことみたいになってますけど.”
Miu: “Oh! Scary! Huh? I guess me calling her a yokai wasn’t so bad of a thing to say after all. I did some searching, trying to figure out what kind of yokai she’d be, but there were so many scary images, I wasn’t able to figure it out. But I can definitely say that she would for sure not be a zashiki-warashi. Sorry.”
Rika: “Yes, I would be!”
Miu: “No, you wouldn’t. If Rika-san says so, I will do my best to defeat the unknown yokai.”
I was losing it at the yokai conversation, haha! Definitely one of those moments where I was like “I’m so glad that I’m translating this.”
Just have the Suzume/Arisu half of the presser, and two (fairly short) show translations left to go!